Tag: Lead Tracking

What Do I Do When a Prospective Member Insists on Getting a Price from Me? (Video)

Posted on by Member Solutions

You’re on the phone with a prospect interested in joining your martial arts school or fitness club. You excitedly describe your classes, facility, and staff, looking forward to the moment when you can invite them in for a visit.

Suddenly, they interrupt to ask the question you dread. They insist on knowing your price. You swallow hard, nervous that as soon as they hear your number, the conversation will be over.

There’s no need to panic. There is an easy, effective way to handle this scenario that every owner and staff member should know. That’s why I created this video to help you address this difficult question and keep the conversation on track.

After watching the video, try practicing the sales script with your program directors, managers and staff—anyone involved in selling memberships.

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Erik Charles Russell has been in the martial arts and fitness industry for more than 25 years. He owns Premier Martial Arts and Fitness in Watertown, NY. In 2015, he published a book based on his successes called The Art of Selling Memberships. The book became an international best seller—hitting number one in three categories in the U.S., Australia, and Germany on Amazon.com.

Why Prospects Won’t Call You Back (But Will Sometimes Talk to You If You Call)

Posted on by Member Solutions
Red wired telephone used to make membership sales calls

You have a bunch of leads. You constantly place calls to these leads. You follow up by phone, leave voicemail messages, send emails, and mail letters. But the prospects don’t call you back, don’t respond to your emails, and don’t stop by in person.

Then, one day, out of the blue, you get one of your prospects on the phone and talk with them for a good hour. You end up signing them up for an introductory class or significantly moving the membership sales process forward.

Why does this happen?

You may argue that you are striking while the iron is hot. Today, the prospect’s urgency (their compelling reason to act now) passed a threshold, so they welcomed you in.

This scenario underscores the importance of consistent follow-up. You need to catch that critical moment.

But if there was urgency in the first place, why didn’t the prospect get back in touch with you sooner? Why didn’t the prospect call to discuss their urgent need?

The Reversal Curve

Most successful sales processes appear linear. We make a progression of sales or networking calls. Each touch point leads to a greater sense of client urgency which eventually culminates into a closed sale. This process is just the tip of the iceberg, the hard sales contacts.

After we make the first successful contact, we think we’ve made great progress. However, the prospect’s sense of urgency typically falls to zero right after our conversation ends. They forget we exist. The prospect―whether a child, teenager, or adult―has many other things going on. Your martial arts program or fitness class is no longer top of mind. Some combination of our reminding the prospect of the urgency, combined with their internal sense of urgency, moves the process along to a second contact point.

On the day we contact the prospect and get through to them, we usually benefit from the explosive impact of internal urgency meeting an external urgency.

Internal Urgency and External Urgency

The internal urgency is the compelling reason to act―the deep underlying answer to the question: Why? Why is the prospect engaged in a serious conversation with us? Why does Jane want to sign up for your kickboxing class? What is her compelling long-term need?

The external urgency answers the question: Why now? What is the immediate trigger explaining why they finally called you back? The external urgency is often the turning point for the prospect ― a strong desire that needs to be fulfilled now. For example, in Jane’s case, “I need to lose 20 pounds before my wedding.”

It’s important to note that the internal urgency can be recognized and tolerated for a long period of time before the prospect actually takes action. Resistance to change is so great that prospects will often times settle and not act on their internal urgency. To maximize forward motion, in general, it is best to work the internal urgency before the external.

The Problem of Limited Consciousness; Aristotle’s Contribution

There’s only so much we can hold in our conscious focus at a time; perhaps four or five ideas or concepts. Whenever we have access to a prospect, we must share succinct, powerful concepts to grab and hold them. There is a short half-life to our ideas―unless we tie them into the prospect’s long-term compelling needs. The “belly to belly” urgency evaporates when we leave, and the greater context sets in. For techniques in developing proper and powerful concepts, Aristotle is both a potent source and inspiration.

To minimize the reversal curve, book the next appointment. Take advantage of the external urgency of a visit or a phone call, and maximize your strong conceptual presentation by booking the appointment when you are face to face with the prospect or talking with them.

About the author: membersolutions has taught selling skills for 17 years. He started three businesses and has made approximately 4,000 sales calls, selling both B2B and B2C. He invented a selling process, Urgency Based Selling®, with which he can typically help companies double their closing or conversion ratio.

After the Birthday Party: A Follow-Up Formula that Turns Leads Into Students

Posted on by Member Solutions
Birthday party event registration and planning

The #1 and #2 reasons for offering any event at your school are retention and new memberships. In last week’s post, I provided tips to help you get your birthday party program off the ground.

In this post, I’ll cover our follow-up system in detail to help you gain those new potential memberships that can result from hosting birthday parties. Keep in mind that you can use this system as a base for follow-up for any of your events—not just birthday parties—with a few minor changes.

Step 1

At the end of the party, all of the guests are handed a VIP pass, which entitles them to one free introductory lesson with the owner of the studio (me). They must call or email me for an appointment. I had 1,000 cards printed for less than $50 through VistaPrint.

Step 2

After each party, I upload all of the event registrations to an Excel file and enter all hard copy information into the same file. I then save it and tag it as “GB attended an event” (GB for Giroux Bros.) and put into my martial arts management software offered through Member Solutions.

As soon as this information is transferred, they receive an automated, personalized email from me that looks something like this:

Hi Mary,

I see that your child attended an event at the studio this weekend, and I heard that all the kids had a blast!

The instructors should have handed you a VIP Pass for a free introductory lesson. I wanted to follow up to see if you were interested in scheduling one with me this week or next.

I will give you a call in a few days as well to set one up for you.

Thanks, and I look forward to meeting you and your family soon!

Sincerely,

Steve Giroux

Owner | 7th Degree Black Belt

Step 3

I take 10 or 15 minutes to enter all the leads into my cell phone and mark them accordingly to have quick access to the information when I call. An example is Bday217 | Mary | Joey and Lexi 7 and 8.

Mary is the mother listed with the child or childrens names and ages.

To help with my own time management, I make these calls during my commute. I’ve had the most success reaching people during the late morning to early afternoon timeframe while the kids are in school.

If I don’t reach them live, I leave a voicemail. I only call them once unless a call back is requested.

At the end of the week, another automated email is sent, which looks something like this:

Hi Mary,

I’ve been trying to reach you. I wanted to see if you were interested in coming in for your free trial lesson. I still have a few spots available next week. If you are interested, please give me a call.

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sincerely,

Steve Giroux

Owner | 7th Degree Black Belt

Step 4

Although these leads are warm, remember that they haven’t specifically asked for any information. They’ve simply attended an event at our studio and hopefully had a great time.

If my initial attempts haven’t sparked a response, I put them into my drip system.

Within the member management software, I tag them as Children Program Prospects 2015. They will receive a series of seven informational emails, automatically-timed, three weeks from one another as a result. The emails are in a newsletter format and discuss topics such as listening skills, bullying, ADD, and ADHD to name a few. I also include these prospects in my direct mail campaigns that I launch three to four times a year.

I hope this information has been helpful. If anyone has questions on hosting birthday parties in your martial arts school or setting up a lead follow-up program, please don’t hesitate to ask. As always, I’m happy to help.

About the author: Steve Giroux has been training in martial arts for 30 years and is a 7th Degree Black Belt in Chun Kuk Do. In 1999, he graduated from Bentley College with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accountancy with a minor concentration in Law. After founding his studio in January of 1999, Steve has successfully grown revenues over the years after starting at only $7,000 in his first year. You can contact Steve via email at Steve@GirouxBrosMartialArts.com.

What You Need to Know to Increase Leads and Membership Sales

Posted on by Member Solutions
Membership software dashboard on laptop with mobile device and notebook on white office desk

If your members are the lifeblood of your business (and they should be), then tracking their behavior is what keeps the blood pumping.

Being able to regularly and systematically track, assess, and triage weak spots in your membership strategy will not only keep your business running smoothly, but it also will spotlight areas of opportunity to grow even further.

Here’s what you need to know to generate leads and drive more membership sales:

Know Your Lead Count and Lead Status

The beginning of the year is one of the busiest and most critical times in the fitness industry. For a multitude of reasons, people are flocking to your facility en masse. You need to be equipped to accommodate these prospective clients to make sure no one slips through the cracks.

Utilizing the lead management functionality in our member management software will allow you to:

  • Gather and store prospects’ contact information
  • Track prospects’ areas of interest
  • Assign follow-up actions for you and/or your staff
  • Automate email messages to engage potential members after the initial inquiry

Through your software, you can see exactly how many inquiries came through your door, how many prospects converted to full members, and how many you still need to follow up with.

Know What Marketing Channels Work

What kind of marketing actually produces leads for you? This question can be answered by your member management software as well. Make sure to assign each lead a source, such as “website,” “walk-in,” “Facebook,” or “referral.”

The lead source data will tell you if that ad in the newspaper is driving any leads or if your marketing efforts are better served on Facebook advertising. Knowing this, you can appropriately allocate marketing dollars to what works and stop spending money on what doesn’t.

Know Your Conversion and Membership Sales Numbers

Maybe you are doing well with bringing in leads but lack conversions and new members. In this case, you’ll want to pinpoint the piece (or person) in your sales process that needs improvement or re-training.

The Lead Activity Report in our member management software will show a list of prospects and where they are in the sales process. The report also will show which program they chose if they did enroll.

If you find that you lose one or two out of ten sales, you may have encountered some tough prospects. If you lose eight out of ten, then it may be time to reconsider your value proposition and how your team presents it.

Make Reporting Part of Your Daily Routine

In addition to making the entry of key data a part of your business process, you need to make the management of this data a part of your daily routine. I recommend running the End of Day Report (an overview of your sales from the previous day, including what was sold and how much was charged) and the Lead Activity Report every day.

A good rule of thumb: Pick three to four reports that are important to your business. Run them every morning as soon as you turn the lights on. You’ll start every day with clear insight into what you need to make and keep your business successful.

These are just a few examples to show the impact that keeping close track of your stats can have on your business. Without tracking these numbers, it’s all too easy to bury your head in the sand and hope the problem goes away; something no business, regardless of industry, can afford to do.

Automate Sales Reporting with Member Management Software

Whether you’re just getting started or you want to fine-tune your existing process, member management software gives you a shortcut to uncovering vital data about your prospects and members. Pre-set fields will encourage you to collect the information you need, while automatic reports make it easy to create good data habits.

Find out what Member Solutions software can do for you. Chat with an expert today.

1 Easy Trick to Increase Your Gym Membership Sales

Posted on by Member Solutions
Man uses membership software reporting and metrics for sales insights

How well do you know your sales team? How well does it handle telephone inquiries? How is it doing with their tours? Are trials converting to new members? If you answered any of these questions without referencing a number or percentage, you’re missing out on one of the easiest ways to increase gym membership sales.

Tracking Sales Performance

Using a few simple sales metrics will help you increase your revenue by determining where your business is strong and where you need to improve. Knowing the numbers will help you:

  • Set goals that motivate team members to reach their potential
  • Use your strengths to drive sales
  • Identify and fix problems in your sales process

Getting Started

The goal is to measure key numbers throughout the sales process. Specifically, you want to track new prospects, tours, trials, and membership sales. Record the data in your fitness club software (or a spreadsheet), where you and your staff can easily review the numbers on a regular basis.

What to Measure
1) Leads

What to Do: Each week, track the number of people who express an interest in your gym. Remember to record the source of the inquiry – your website, email, phone call, Facebook, etc.

Why It’s Important: How many leads you get tells you how well your marketing is working and determines how many opportunities your sales team has to sell memberships.

Tools to Help: Use the Member Manager Lead Activity report to review the new leads you have in a certain period.

2) Lead Follow Up

What to Do: As a group, review the phone calls, emails and other follow-up activities your team does. Try to identify the activities that help drive trials and sales.

Why It’s Important: Inspecting the follow-up process can reveal which activities—or a combination of activities—give you the best results. You may discover that you should adjust your sales process or that your staff needs extra training.

Tools to Help: Optimize your sales process with Member Manager Lead Flows – series of tasks, such as phone calls or automated emails and text messages, which detail your lead follow-up process. Use the Member Manager Follow Ups report to review every time a sales team member has contacted a lead.

3) Tours & Trials

What to Do: Tally the number of tours you give of your facility. If you offer trials, carefully track how many leads take trials.

Why It’s Important: Tours and trials are crucial parts of the decision-making process. If your leads aren’t coming in for visits, there may be a problem with your follow-up process.

Tools to Help: Review the Member Manager Prospect Activity chart to quickly check how many appointments have been set and introductory tours have been completed by your team.

4) New Members

What to Do: Based on your financial goals, set a target for the number of new members you want to have each month and make sure it is well communicated to your team. Compare sales to the number of leads, the amount of follow-up and the number of tours/trials given to get an idea of your overall success.

Why It’s Important: Good sales can be an indicator of the health of your business. On the other hand, if you’re consistently missing your goal, there may be a problem with your strategy. Comparing sales to other metrics can reveal opportunities to improve your marketing, communication, tours, trial offers or membership options.

Tools to Help: Check the Member Manager New Members report to see how many memberships you’ve sold in a period of time. View the Sales And Value chart to quickly find out your revenue by category.

These easy-to-use metrics can help make your sales team more effective and significantly increase your gym membership sales. These numbers will teach you how to maximize your strengths, fine-tune your sales process and motivate your team to go above and beyond expectations.

For more information on Member Manager software, contact the Training and Support team at 877.600.3811 or support@membersolutions.com.

About the author: Justin Bodamer is the Manager of Implementation & Support for Member Solutions. The Implementation and Support team is dedicated to helping you and your team make the most of your relationship with Member Solutions. You can contact Justin at membersolutions@membersolutions.com.

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